Meet the Cast
SPENCER
ASTE
Nick
Cliplight Theatre: Wake Up (writer/performer). Axis Theatre: Strangers in the World; High Noon; Dead End; Solitary Light; Nothing on Earth Can Hold Houdini; Last Man Club; Seven in One Blow and Hospital. Various Roles
in St. Joan with Bedlam. Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Midsummer Night's Dream. Lincoln Center: Hamlet (Lincoln Center Institute); Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (NY Philharmonic). Other NY theatre: Axial Theatre; The Acting Company (company member): Richard III; Murder By Poe; Taming of the Shrew; The Three Musketeers; MacBeth; Pudd’nhead Wilson. Fundamental Theater Project; Storm Theatre Co.; New York Theatre Workshop: Finer Noble Gases (dir. Adam Rapp); American Café (dir. Susanna Tubert); The Cell; MTC; MCC; Boomerang Theat. Co.; Rising Phoenix Rep. and La MaMa, among others. Regional Theatre: Denver Center Theatre Company: Twelfth Night; American Clock; New Business (dir. Steven Dietz). Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Creede Repertory Theatre. Films: “My First Kiss and the People Involved”; “200 American”; “Taking Woodstock” (dir. Ang Lee); voice of Wounded Soldier (green army man) in “Toy Story”. Television: "The Blacklist"; “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”; “Boardwalk Empire”; “Royal Pains”. Web Series: “The Thing”. B.F.A. from the University of Utah and M.F.A. from the National Theater Conservatory in Denver, CO. Spenceraste.com
Much love to Erik.
JENNY
BENNETT
Helen
Pulse: City of Ladies NYC: The Three Musketeers (dir), Emancipation (Mary, Elizabeth), Henry V (dir), Classical Theatre of Harlem; Coney Island Avenue by Charles Mee, world premiere; Lizzie workshop (Emma); The Expatriates (Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein); Much Ado about Nothing (dir). Regional:
Murder on the Orient Express (Greta), Inherit the Wind, The Patsy,
Juno and the Paycock, Delaware REP; American Shakespeare Center directing includes Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Henry VI part 3,
The Winter’s Tale. International: Taiwan acting and directing includes Macbeth, Dangerous Liaisons/ Weixian Guanxi, Romeo
& Juliet, Into the Woods, and As You Like It! (a musical she co-wrote). Jenny is in process to complete certification
as a Consent Forward Artist from IDC.
Insta: @jb_JennyB
SCHYLER
CONAWAY
Brad
Off-Broadway debut! TV/Film: Law & Order: SVU (Guest Star), The Today Show (Citi-bank Concert Series, Featured Singer) Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve
w/ Ryan Seacrest (4 years, Featured Singer) International: USO
Show Troupe (9 years, Featured Singer), Mamma Mia! (Sky). Regional: Mamma Mia! (Sky), Spring Awakening (Melchior),
Les Miserables (Marius), Joseph...Dreamcoat
(Joseph), Disney's Newsies (Jack Kelly).
BFA Shenandoah Conservatory.
Continued gratitude
to my family for their unconditional love
and support. This performance is dedicated to Ira, who spent each day chasing happy, and to my
real-life Brad, who
helped me find mine.
@schylerconaway
ANTOINETTE
LaVECCHIA
Maria
Most recently, played her dream role of Serafina in The Rose Tattoo, directed by Bonnie Monte. Broadway: Torch Song,
A Comedy of Tenors (McCarter/Cleveland Play House), I Loved, I Lost,
I Made Spaghetti (TheaterWorks, George St., Cincinnati Playhouse, Asolo Rep), Tough Titty (Williamstown) TV: Mad About You (reboot), Bull, The Deuce, FBI, Blindspot, L&O: SVU, Blue Bloods, L&O, The Sopranos Film: Team Marco, Deliver Us From Evil, Delirious Education: MFA Tisch/NYU, Moscow Art Theatre, Philippe Gaulier. Member: Dramatist Guild, Drama League Fellow, The Actors Center. Awards: Fox Fellowship, The Anna Sosenko Grant, CT Critics CircleAward, BroadwayWorld.com CT Best Actress Award, Outer Critics Circle nomination.
CHRISTOPHER
JAMES MURRAY
Rob
Christopher (he/him)
is delighted to join the cast of Chasing Happy. He is a Beaumont, TX native and a University
of Virginia Alum (MFA '14).
Off-Broadway: The Falling Season (Theater Row), W;t (TSP), The Tyrannicides (TRT). Regional: One Man,
Two Guvnors (Heritage Theater festival), Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
(The Blackfriars Playhouse), Merrymaking (World Premiere/Maples Repertory Theater). TV: How To Be A Good Listener (Amazon Prime).
@crosemurray
Creatives
Michel Wallerstein, playwright, is a produced playwright, screenwriter and producer who has lived and worked in and around New York City for the last forty years and in Provincetown for the past twenty. Plays include Flight, Five Women Waiting, Off Hand, Mighty Real, Fortune Cookie and Lap Dance, produced at such theatres as the Daryl Roth Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Source, StageWorks Hudson, The Cherry Lane and Pulse Ensemble Theatre. A prolific television writer in the European market, Michel (with his writing partner, Linda Wendell) has written many award-nominated and produced screenplays, prime time series and movies-of-the-week. Michel is proud to have his latest play, Chasing Happy, produced by Pulse Theater.
Alexa Kelly, director, is the co-founder of Pulse Ensemble Theatre in New York City, and has been Pulse’s Artistic Director since 1989. Born of a Greek mother and a Scottish father, she was raised and educated in London, England. Alexa studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London, for 3 years. She then visited the US, where she got an MFA at UNC-G, and worked on a Ph.d. at Florida State University.
She has directed 55 of Pulse’s main stage productions. She has worked regionally as a host for PBS-TV, and as an actor, director or teacher at the Alliance Theatre, Walnut Street Theatre, Attic Theatre, Academy Theatre, Little Five Points, etc. She was the Literary Manager for the Walnut Street Theatre for two years, and ran a drama program at FCI in Tallahassee for 3 years. She has taught and/or directed at UNC-G, FSU, U of M, Tisch School of the Arts, and Adelphi University.
Alexa also founded and produced the critically acclaimed Harlem Summer Shakespeare Project; producing for 15 years in the beautiful Amphitheatre in Riverbank State Park, Harlem.
Union affiliations: SDC, AEA, SAG, LPTW, DGA.
CHRISTIAN FLEMING
Scenic Designer
Christian is excited to be making his Pulse debut with this show! Big thank you to Alexa and the team! Recent credits include: Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Gene & Gilda (Penguin Rep), Sunday in the Park with George, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The SpongeBob Musical (Titusville Playhouse), Escape to Margaritaville (Riverside PAC), Spamalot, A Christmas Carol, Happy Days (Arizona Broadway Theatre), American Idiot (Ghostlight Theatre Co.), Into the Woods (Lincoln Park PAC), ...Spelling Bee (Epic Players), Chasing Andy Warhol (Bated Breath Theatre Co), and Tempest, Othello (Nebraska Shakespeare). Up next: The Christians (Queensborough Community College) MFA Carnegie Mellon. @christianflemingdesign
JOYCE LIAO
Lighting Designer
Joyce is a Brooklyn-based theatre Lighting Designer. Selected credits: Andy Warhol in Iran (Barrington Stage Company), Sweat (Dallas Theatre Center), Azul (Southern Rep Theatre), Party Face, starring Hayley Mills (New York City Center Stage II), Hero, starring Omari Hardwick (Billie Holiday Theatre) and The Pill (La MAMA), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Cherry Lane Studio Theatre). Soul of Soulin (Broadway, Marquee Theatre), Chasing Andy Warhol, Dead Dog Park, The English Bride(59E59), The Glass Menagerie, A Midsummer Night's Dream (47 Street Theatre), Breakfast with Mugabe, Final Analysis (Signature Theatre). Her lighting design on Brothers from the Bottom was nominated for an Audelco award. www.joyceliaostudio.com
ELENA VANNONI
Costume & Properties Designer
Elena earned a degree in costume design at Istituto d’Arte in Florence. She continued her studies at the Florence University of Literature and Philosophy (majoring in Music and Theatre). In 2001, she was accepted at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, earning her degree in Theatre Directing. In 2005, she was awarded Best Theatre Director in the National Prize of the Arts. In 2006, she received a grant to continue her studies at the l’Universität der Künste in Berlin, where she was later promoted to the position of guest professor. She is currently pursuing a Master in Theater Directing from Columbia University.
JOEL ABBOTT
Sound Designer
Broadway (assist): All My Sons, Present Laughter, Birthday Candles. Off-Broadway and Regional: Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature (NYC), Shakespeare Theatre Company DC, Barrington Stage, Long Wharf, Gulfshore Playhouse, Florida Rep, Le Petit Theatre, Yale Rep, Theaterworks, Vermont Stage. His television music has been heard on The Vampire Diaries, Riverdale, Southern Charm, Real Housewives of Atlanta, Black Ink Crew, Blind Date, Flipping Exes, Million Dollar Listing, Love and Hip Hop, Bar Rescue, and many other sordid reality shows. He is originally from Atlanta, Georgia, and he received his MFA in theatre from the Yale School of Drama. He has a cheerful wife and three fluffy dogs.
CHRISTINE CIRKER
Associate Producer | Graphic Design
Off-Broadway productions: Strings Attached (Pulse Theatre), Letters to Sala by Arlene Hutton, Renata Hinrich’s Random Acts, Jean Taylor’s The Basement Plays, The R Word and Downsizing for Our Workshop East, Einstein & Mileva (Crosshatch Co.). Regional: Romeo & Juliet (The Curtain Co., NJ). With Lee Brock, she is producing director for F.A.B.Women@tbg (The Barrow Group’s women’s development group) where she has directed and produced since 2010. She is currently producer for The Red Shoe (short film) and associate producer for Would You Hide Me? (feature documentary)-- both currently in production/distribution. In addition to producing, she directs in NYC and regionally. Graduate of the University of Michigan. Vice-President of The League of Professional Theatre Women. As a graphic artist, Christine has designed for print and web for over 25 years.
CHRISTINE LEMME
Production Stage Manager
Most recently: Leni’s Last Lament. Broadway: reasons to be pretty, Swan Lake. Off-Broadway: Irish Rep, Labyrinth, MCC, Vineyard, Primary Stages, TBTB, 2nd Stage, and many others.
JEREMY KARAFIN
Production Manager
Jeremy Karafin founded Poetic Theater Productions in February 2010 and, as artistic director, has produced over 170 productions, showcases, gallery shows and readings including award winning productions of GOLIATH, faith, Outside Paducah: The Wars at Home, and Village Orpheus, and several critically acclaimed productions and premieres some of which include Dijla Wal Furat: Between The Tigris and the Euphrates, Paradox of the Urban Cliché, Underground, Foreign Bodies, BACK, Redbone: A Biomythography, and Taproot: Poetic Short Plays. Other programming includes the Veteran Voices 2017 Series, 9 art gallery shows, 2 years of Conscious Language workshops and panels and 7 years of Poetic License festivals of new poetic theater which has featured world premiere productions, readings, and showcases focused on new poetic theater by veterans, youth, and LGBTQ artists.
JAMIBETH MARGOLIS
Casting Director
Jamibeth is a professional casting director based in New York City. She was with Johnson-Liff Casting, Cameron Mackintosh, and Margolis-Seay Casting and is now out on her own as a freelance casting director and owner of Jamibeth Margolis Casting And Productions. Previous credits include the Broadway and National Touring Companies of such hits as Les Miserables, The Phantom Of The Opera, Miss Saigon, Cats, and Jane Eyre as well as two dozen other shows on Broadway. She currently casts for Off Broadway, National Touring Companies and shows for prominent regional theaters and all of the major theater festivals in NYC. She is proud to cast for the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, New City Music Theatre, and most recently Sistas The Musical (Off-Broadway) and Harmony by Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman (Off-Broadway). Her casting office is dedicated to the development of new plays and musicals. Jamibeth won an Artios Award for her casting of Fiddler On The Roof In Yiddish at Stage 42 (directed by Joel Grey). Thank you to Alexa for the opportunity. Member: Casting Society Of America www.jamibetharts.com
BRIAN RICHARDSON
Company Manager
Brian started his theater career in 1981 with Trinidad Tent Theatre where he trained and performed for many years, while also gaining the rank of technical director. He thanks Helen Camps and all those there who saw something in him.
He continued pursuing acting after migrating to the US in 1989 and has stage managed many pieces in New York. He has been company manager of Pulse Ensemble Theatre since 2000.
He always enjoys working on new pieces.
Follow us...Chasing Happy
Production Photos
All photos by John Quilty
Contact
Pulse Theatre
Alexa Kelly, Artistic Director
Brian Richardson, General Manager
Phone: 212-695-1596